New York Knicks admit they have a weakness

The New York Knicks, known for their defensive prowess, have not played up to par this season.

The Knicks rank 21st in defensive rating, and those struggles were once again put under a magnifying glass as the team lost on the road to the struggling Utah Jazz last weekend.

Knicks forward Josh Hart is frustrated by the team’s defensive shortcomings and hopes to find a way to be part of the solution.

“We’ve had problems defensively all season. When you’re not making shots and playing bad defense, it’s a recipe for disaster,” Hart said in the Posts and Toasts section. “We have to sort out the defense. Offensively, we have enough talent up front where even if some guys don’t make it on the day, we can play well and win games. But we need to sort out our defense.”

The problem is definitely not one of wrongdoing. The Knicks have the second-best offensive rating in the league behind the Cleveland Cavaliers at 17-1. New York should be close to that record, but a 9-7 mark through 16 games shows just how bad the defense really was.

“When you hit, it’s easy – you can play defense. So we just have to find a way out when we get lost,” Mikal Bridges said. “There will be games like this. Just get over it.”

The Knicks ranked 9th in the NBA in defensive rating last year, and adding Karl-Anthony Towns and Bridges shouldn’t cause the team to regress that much. Sure, the team is missing Isaiah Hartenstein, but that doesn’t mean the Knicks should be in the bottom third of the league defensively.

New York will have to focus more on defense in the upcoming games to get out of this slump.

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